Education & Professional training

July 2023 – Present; Postdoctoral researcher, 
Institute of Microbiology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

December 2022 – June 2023; Postdoctoral researcher,
Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology/University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany 

April 2019 – December 2022; PhD in Marine Microbial Ecology, 
Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology/University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany 
Thesis title; 
‘Molecular ecological characterization of high-latitude bacterioplankton’ 
- Thesis supervised by PD. Dr. Bernhard M. Fuchs 

October 2017 – March 2019; MSc Marine Microbiology 
Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology/University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany 
Thesis title: 
‘Investigating fungal community dynamics through a coastal spring algal bloom’ 

September 2014 – July 2017; BSc Marine Biology & Oceanography  
Plymouth University, Plymouth, UK

Awards

FEMS Microbiology Ecology Lecture Prize. 9th International Conference on Polar and Alpine Microbiology, Potsdam, Germany, 2022

MARMIC teaching excellence award. International Max Planck Research School for Marine Microbiology. 2021 - 2022

Presentation of research

• Invited speaker: PacBio Day (2022). Wageningen University, Wageningen, Netherlands
• Poster: ISME18 Conference (2022), Lausanne, Switzerland
• Speaker: Polar Microbes Symposium (2022), Tvårminne, Finland
• Speaker: International Conference of Polar and Alpine Microbiology (2022), Potsdam, Germany
• Invited speaker: Seminar at University of Oldenburg (2022). Oldenburg, Germany
• Invited speaker: Virtual PacBio Day at EMBL (2022)
• Invited speaker: PacBio Global Virtual User Meeting (2021)

Publications

Wietz, M., Engel, A., Ramondenc, S., Niwano, M., Von Appen, W.-J., Priest, T., von Jackowski, A., Metfies, K., Bienhold, C., Boetius, A., (2023) . The Arctic summer microbiome across Fram Strait: depth, region and substrates structure microbial diversity in the euphotic zone. (Accepted in Env. Microbiol.).

Priest, T., Vidal-Melgosa, S., Hehemann, J.-H., Amann, R., Fuchs, B., (2023). Spatial heterogeneity in carbohydrates and their utilisation by microbial communities in the high North Atlantic. BioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.05.11.540373 (Accepted in ISME Comms).

Priest, T., Von Appen, J.-W., Oldenburg, E., Popa, Ovidiu, Torres-Valdés, S., Bienhold, C.,  Metfies, K., Fuchs, B. M., Amann, R., Boetius, A., Wietz, M., (2022). Variations in Atlantic 
water influx and sea ice cover drive taxonomic and functional shifts in Arctic marine bacterial  communities. ISME J. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-023-01461-6

Dede, B., Priest, T., Bach, W., Amann, R., Walter, M., Meyerdieks, A., (2022). High  abundance of hydrocarbon-degrading Alcanivorax in plumes of hydrothermally active  volcanoes in the South Pacific Ocean. ISME J. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-023-01366-4

Vidal-Melgosa, S., Lagator, M., Sichert, A., Priest, T., Pätzold, J., Hehemann, J.-H., (2022).  Not digested: algal glycans move carbon dioxide into the deep-sea. BioXriv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.04.483023(Under review) 

Priest, T., Heins, A., Harder, J., Amann, R., Fuchs, B. M., (2022). Niche partitioning of the  ubiquitous and ecologically relevant NS5 marine group. ISME J. 
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-022-01209-8  

Priest, T., Orellana, L. H., Huettel, B., Fuchs, B. M., Amann, R., (2021). Microbial metagenome-assembled genomes of the Fram Strait from short and long read sequencing  platforms. PeerJ. 9:e11721.https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.11721

Priest, T., Fuchs, B., Amann, R., Reich, M., (2021). Diversity and biomass dynamics of unicellular marine fungi during a spring phytoplankton bloom. Env Microbiol. 23(1):448-463. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.11721